


Once In A Lullaby

by TobuIshi



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cuties, Dream Bubbles, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 17:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TobuIshi/pseuds/TobuIshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jade Harley found herself floating in empty space with no memory of how she'd gotten there, she wasn't sure what to expect! [Jade Harley + Calliope, friendship in a bubble.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once In A Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pukjie_Ainsel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pukjie_Ainsel/gifts).



When Jade Harley found herself floating in empty space with no memory of how she'd gotten there, she wasn't sure what to expect! It was a super alarming situation, even for a capable young lady like herself. She wouldn't be a bit ashamed to admit that, as she took her first steps down the softly spiraling golden road, she was a little spooked. A little unsure of what she might find at the end.

She can say with confidence, though, that she never expected to find someone like Callie.

It's turning out to be a very excellent surprise.

 

“Oh, that's lovely!” A delighted smile lights up Callie's face as she peers at Jade's drawing. They're sprawled on their stomachs on the stage, heads bent over a shared drawing pad, surrounded with a litter of discarded dream-paper and colored pencils. “Have you decided on a symbol yet?”

Jade wrinkles her nose. “Do I have to? Picking just one is kind of...boring.”

“Hmm,” Callie says, apparently considering the idea in full seriousness. She's very _solemn_ sometimes. Jade thinks it is pretty cute! “Well, most trolls are assigned a symbol from wigglerhood, but...perhaps if you had an interesting backstory for it?” she suggests. “Nearly anything can be excused with backstory, you know. Do you think I could have a go at drawing her, too? I quite like her stripey socks.”

Jade giggles. “You've gotta have stripey socks!” she says, and kicks her own slippered feet back and forth in the air. “What kind of witch doesn't wear them?”

Callie's eyes kindle with interest. “Is there a connection between socks and witches in human culture?” she asks. Her grip on her pencil has unconsciously shifted into writing mode, as if she's already itching to take notes. Clearly this is an opportunity for cultural exchange!

“Definitely,” Jade declares. “Stripey socks are pretty much the third most important part of a good witch costume, after a pointy hat and a broom. Haven't you ever seen _The Wizard of Oz_? Or, I don't know, _The Troll Wizard of Oz?_ ” She racks her brains for a minute; what would a troll version of the film be titled? Something much too long and complicated, for sure. In which a young rustblood and her little barkbeast are swept away in a cyclone, only for their hive...no, their house...

Their house...

To...fall...

“Jade?”

“Huh?” Snapped back to the present, Jade blinks, disoriented. Callie is hesitating shyly on the verge of touching her shoulder. Her green eyes are wide.

“Are you all right?” She has such a pretty accent, even when her voice is small and worried. “You...seemed quite distracted for a moment.”

Jade sits up and gives herself a shake, ears flapping. _Ugh._ Everything feels all wobbly, on the verge of sliding back to...whatever _that_ was. She's not _ready_ yet. She needs a distraction, pronto. “I'm fine,” she says, and makes herself smile. “So, anyway...witches! Probably the most famous human witch ever is the Wicked Witch of the West!”

She snatches up a black pencil and begins sketching as she talks, in short blunt lines. “She was totally strong and super scary! And she had _all_ the witch stuff figured out. She rode on a broom, see? Like this.” Jade fills in the bristles with quick strokes.

“Did she have a pointy hat?” Callie asks. She's leaning close for a better look.

“Only the pointiest hat ever!” Jade adds it – witch hats are easy, you just draw a triangle – and sits back to admire her work. “Oh, and she was _green,_ too!” Snatching up a colored pencil, Jade starts busily filling in the cartoon witch's face.

“I never really got why they gave the _evil_ witch green skin, though,” she muses, half thinking aloud. “I mean, green is the best color, right? I think green skin would be beautiful.”

For a moment, the only sound in all their little world is the scratching of Jade's pencil.

Puzzled at the silence, she stops drawing and looks up. Callie has the _oddest_ look on her face, happy and almost like she's about to cry at the same time.

“Callie?” she says. “What's wrong?”

The not-troll girl takes a deep breath. “Nothing,” she says. “I'm quite all right. You're excellent at drawing, you know.”

Jade shakes her head. “I'm really not! You're like a million times better than I am.”

“Oh, but...I've had quite a bit of spare time to practice,” Callie says, and she sounds sad again. “I imagine you've been far too busy with all your adventures to draw very much at all...but your sketches are very charming!”

“Well, mostly I just used to play around with my Pictionary modus a lot,” Jade admits. It's kind of a sheepish thing to admit, but Callie doesn't look scornful. She just looks confused.

“Oh, dear,” she says. “Clearly I'm more behind on my human culture than I even imagined...”

“You've _never heard_ of Pictionary?” Jade gasps.

An embarrassed green flush rises in Callie's cheeks, but before she can say anything, Jade is already grabbing for more pencils.

“Ooh, we have _got_ to play it now,” she exclaims. “Here, you use the pad of paper, and you have to start drawing something...”

 

The hours pass away swiftly in laughter and used paper; in jokes and sketches and games and stories. Jade smiles until the muscles of her cheeks ache. She hasn't had this much fun in what feels like ages.

And Callie _glows._ She chatters and giggles and wins two out of three rounds of Pictionary, and she is radiant.

Jade has completely lost track of time when she finds herself covering a yawn. Her colored pencil is worn down to a nub. She sets it down and rubs sleepily at her eyes. “Mmm, I'm tired...”

A forlorn little sigh cannot sneak past Jade Harley's excellent doggy hearing, even if she is very tired! Her ears prick up, and she looks curiously at Callie. The girl has put down her pencil, too, in the middle of a beautiful drawing of a hoofbeast. (It was sweet of her to be so nice about it, but Jade still figures she is _crazy_ if she thinks Jade's drawings can compare to hers.)

“This has been such lovely fun,” she sighs. “I wish it didn't have to end.”

Does it have to end? Jade opens her mouth to protest, then pauses. If she's still alive, then her friends will be worrying, right? And if she's dead...well. There are ways around 'dead'.

She can't stay here forever. Callie is right.

But...

“Well,” Jade says, “I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some rest before I jump back into the fray!” There's a twinkle of fun in her green eyes. “Callie, have you ever had a sleepover before? With big fluffy sleeping bags, and snacks, and pillow fights? Fun fights, I mean, where nobody gets hurts and feathers get _everywhere?_ ”

“Never,” Callie breathes. “Is it a human custom? It sounds absolutely brilliant!”

Jade grins a happy doggy grin.

“You want to have one now?” she says.

 

As she snuggles into her sleeping bag, hours later, a thought occurs to Jade. She flicks a feather out of her hair, and rolls over.

“Callie?” she whispers.

“Hmm?” her new friend whispers back, drowsily.

“I just realized,” she says. “This is my first sleepover, too.”

It wasn't what Jade expected when she set foot on that glowing road; it probably wasn't what Callie expected when she burst into her nice safe dream-bubble.

But maybe finding a kindred spirit is always a pleasant surprise.

A smile lingers on both girls' faces, as they drift off into dreams within dreams.


End file.
